


Reggie's Epiphany

by thek9kid



Series: Female Reggie [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Comfort, Cramps, Cuddling, Family, Female Reggie, Friendship, Gen, Gen Z Slang, Genderbending, Menstruation, Reggie not understanding Gen Z slang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27680252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thek9kid/pseuds/thek9kid
Summary: As Reggie helps Julie through a rough day on her period Reggie has an afterlife-changing Epiphany.Female Reggie!
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Reggie & Luke Patterson, Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: Female Reggie [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024129
Comments: 12
Kudos: 97





	Reggie's Epiphany

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi! So I wanted to write a genderbent fic but I didn’t want to just rehash the show’s plot points or get bogged down with superficial details. So I decided to write a series of one-shots about Female Reggie, she is the only character whose gender is different from cannon. This first part focuses more on Reggie and Julie’s friendship but also features her friendship with the boys and Flynn. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!

It had only been a month since the Orpheum performance since they broke Caleb’s curse. A month since they narrowly escaped a second death. For the first couple of days afterward, they all stuck together, stuck to Julie. They were afraid of something happening, of Caleb coming back to take revenge if one of them was alone. That only lasted for a week before being together all of the time took its toll and each of them needed their own space. Still worried they made sure to tell each other where they were going, with who, and when they thought they would be back. 

Early on a particularly beautiful Saturday morning, Reggie was hanging out in the garage writing out lyrics and chord ideas for a new country song. Contrary to what Luke thought they were not jokes to her. Alex and Luke left to hang with Willie about an hour ago, Reggie usually would have gone too, but she felt the inspiration itching in her fingertips and needed to work out her ideas. 

Reggie hadn’t expected anyone to come into the studio for a few hours, Julie liked to sleep in on the weekends so Reggie wasn’t expecting the garage doors to bang open at 6:30 am. Reggie flinched at the noise before she looked up, seeing Julie in the doorway, in her yellow smiley face sweatshirt, purple sweatpants, and her monster slippers. Reggie couldn’t help her smile, she looked adorable, even if she did look like she just rolled out of bed. Then Julie groaned, shuffled into the garage, and flopped onto the couch next to her, curling up with her head in Reggie’s lap. 

“You good Jules?” Reggie asked, putting her guitar down, and started playing with Julie’s curls.

Julie just groaned again.

“I’ll take that as a no then. What’s wrong?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t anything life-threatening. Despite her many attempts after becoming semi-solid, Reggie had not been able to poof with Julie or Flynn anywhere, so poofing Jules to the hospital, doctor’s office, or even to her dad at Carlos’ baseball game was out of the question. 

“It’s my period. my cramps feel like I swallowed razor blades and they’re tearing my insides apart,” Julie mumbled into her thigh. 

“Ooof. Been there,” Reggie grimaced, twisting one of Julie’s curls around her finger. Her cramps were the worst pain she had ever felt in her entire life and afterlife. “My cramps are worse than my actual death was, worse than Caleb’s curse jolts.”

“Mood,” Julie mumbled.

“I have no idea what that means,” Reggie shook her head. Julie just shrugged and sighed obviously too tired to explain modern slang. That was ok, Reggie would ask Alex later. Willie loved to tell him all sorts of new words and phrases.

“Why’d you come out here then? Wasn’t it more comfortable in bed?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t wanna be alone,” Julie said turning her head to squint at her. She forgot her glasses when she came outside. 

“Aww,” Reggie cooed, Julie slapped her hip lightly. “That’s sweet. But, um, why don’t we go up to your room. I’ll grab the heating pad and Midol, and you can be comfy and we can, oh what did Alex call it? Netflix and Chill?”

Julie snorted so hard she would have rolled off the couch if Reggie hadn’t reached out to grab her. 

“Julie!?” Reggie cried out in alarm before she realized she was laughing. “What? What did I say?” But Jules just kept giggling. Reggie shrugged and ran her fingers through her hair until she calmed down enough to breathe again.

“I’ll explain later when I have more energy, but Reg, don’t say that again. It doesn’t mean what you think it does,” Julie sighed. “Thanks though I needed a good laugh.”

“Glad to be of service milady,” Reggie said as she helped Julie to her feet, doing a flourishing bow that made Julie laugh again. The two made their way back up to the house, Reggie keeping an arm around the shorter girl’s shoulders.

“But yeah we can watch Netflix and relax,” Julie said as they made it to her room. 

“Isn’t- wait, isn’t that what I just said?!” Reggie asked thoroughly confused. Julie just smiled and shook her head.

“Nope.” She said crawling under the covers.

“I’ll never understand you zoomers,” she muttered, very confused. Julie snorted again before Reggie popped around the house gathering the necessary supplies, including a heating pad, Midol, Julie’s favorite purple fuzzy blanket from the closet, and of course Julie’s favorite snacks: Twizzlers, sprite, pretzels, sour patch kids, orange juice and chocolate ice cream.

Reggie popped back in and laid the haul out on the bed. Julie flicked through titles on the very confusing Netflix thing on the TV mounted on her wall. They eventually decided on Julie’s comfort show, the remake of She Ra and the Princesses of Power. Reggie had watched parts of the original as a kid but wasn’t a big fan. The new show however pulled her interest within the first episode and Julie was excited when her favorite parts came up even though she’d seen the thing about five times already, and kept slapping her shoulder and telling her to “watch this part” even though she was clearly already watching the show.

The two were halfway through the first season, cuddled together at the top of Julie’s bed under the purple fuzzy blanket when Reggie had an afterlife changing epiphany.

“Oh my god,” Reggie breathed, bolting upright, dislodging the blanket from both of them.

“What?” Julie asked, snatching the blanket and cocooning herself within it.

Reggie turned to her friend, who was eating a fistful of Twizzlers. She couldn’t help but smile at her.

“How long have we been here?”

“Like two months maybe. Whoa, only two months? It feels like you’ve been a part of my life forever.” Julie smiled and took Reggie’s hand. “What’s up girl?”

“I-” she couldn’t help but smile back, “I’m dead.” Julie’s smile dropped and her eyebrows furrowed together.

“Yeah, we’ve established that. Uh, are you feeling ok?” Julie asked, dropping the Twizzlers to rub Reggie’s arm.

“Yeah, no, I mean- I’ve been dead for like 25 years, right? And we’ve been here, conscious ghost, spirit things, for over a month. And, guess what Jules? I haven’t gotten my period! I’ll never get my period again!” Reggie jumped up on the bed and bounced in excitement. 

Julie’s jaw dropped and grabbed a pillow, slamming it into her legs making Reggie flail in the air before dropping back to the bed.

“Jules! What was that for!?”

“You’re so lucky,” she cried falling dramatically into her pillows.

“For being dead?” Reggie smirked. Julie rolled her eyes and hit her with the pillow again. “Ow!” Reggie smacked her with her own pillow a few times before Julie started laughing and called a truce. 

“No, you goof. You’re periodless! For the rest of your ghosthood and beyond while I have to deal with it every damn month for the next forty years!” Julie groaned.

“Yeah,” Reggie patted her back, “that sucks.” Julie rolled her eyes but smiled at Reggie.

“I’m happy for you though. It would suck to have to deal with period stuff as a ghost.” Reggie shuddered at the thought. She hated dealing with it in life, the thought of having her period for the rest of eternity- she didn’t want to even think about it. 

“I just- the first time I got my period, I was alone, and I didn’t know what was happening. My mom, she never talked about it with me. I- it hurt so much and there was so much blood- I thought I was dying-” Julie cut her off with a hug and Reggie buried her nose in her hair, the scent of peaches tickling her nose. 

“You must have been so scared,” Jules whispered, gently rubbing her back.

Reggie nodded, “I tried to call my parents but they didn’t answer, so I called Alex who was just as freaked out but he calmed me down just by talking about music and school and stuff, and then he called Luke and Luke told his mom, and all three of them came over. Mrs. Patterson explained everything, and God I was so embarrassed,” Reggie said, she tried to pull out of the hug, but Julie held on tighter.

“You had nothing to be embarrassed about, you were scared, you had no idea what was going on with your own body, being scared and confused is completely understandable,” Julie reassured her as they pulled out of their hug. 

“After, when I understood, I was so mad. My mom could have taken ten minutes to explain, to say, ‘hey sometime soon a bunch of blood is gonna pour out of your vagina nonstop for seven days, once a month, don’t worry it’s normal!’ Although that probably would have freaked me out too.” Reggie quirked her head to the side as Julie snorted, “but then at least we could have talked. I could have understood and I wouldn’t have been so afraid or embarrassed.”

Julie nodded and leaned back into the pillows pulling Reggie down and holding onto one of her arms. “My mom, she made up a song, to explain everything. I think she was a little nervous about having that conversation too, and Mom just communicated better with music. It’s actually a pretty catchy song, but anyway, we had a pretty long conversation afterward. Not just about periods and puberty, but about us, about women and her own experiences. She told stories about how Abulea tried to tell Tía when she was young but she was just so confused about it because Abuela was using a lot of metaphors instead of just saying it, and Mom was laughing too hard to be of any help. So Tía just checked out a book from the library about puberty instead. Mom wanted to do it differently and put her own feelings aside so that I could understand,” Julie said, playing with one specific bracelet on her wrist, a braided gold, black, and purple one. 

“Anyway,” Julie took a deep breath and sat up, “you’ll never get your period again,” Julie smiled as Reggie sat up and nodded. “We should celebrate!”

“You feeling up for that?” Reggie asked, not forgetting how much pain Julie was in earlier. 

“Yeah, the Midol kicked in, and the heating pad really helped. So how do you wanna celebrate?”

“Dance party?” Reggie suggested, remembering the number of dance party celebrations she had with her boys and other friends when she was alive. They only had one dance party as ghosts when they booked the Orpheum, but that was bittersweet as they thought they would be crossing over afterward. 

“Hell yeah!” Julie rolled off her bed, turning her blanket into a cape, as she fumbled for her phone and connected it to a speaker thing on her bedside table. A moment later upbeat dance music flowed through the room. Reggie was surprised she recognized the song, Everybody Dance Now. Her heart warmed that Julie was playing old music Reggie would recognize, not that she didn’t like some of the new music in 2020 but she still loved the music she grew up with and connected to in her life.

The girls weren't particularly gifted dancers, but they moved to the beat and sang along to the lyrics. Reggie pulled out old cheesy dance moves from the nineties that made Julie giggle. Julie’s dancing was all elbows and knees, but her enthusiasm made up for it and they just had fun.

About ten minutes later, and a few songs and costume changes, a knock came from the door. Julie yelled, “Come in!” over the music, before Luke and Alex walked through the door and froze, looked at each other, shrugged, and started dancing with them.

“Why are we dancing?” Alex shouted. 

Reggie grabbed his hands and they twirled around the room while she answered. “I didn’t get my period!” She grinned and jumped up onto Julie’s bed. Alex looked a bit confused but grinned and continued dancing. Luke however froze mid moonwalk and gaped at her.

“You’re pregnant!?” he shouted. Everyone stopped and stared at him. Julie paused the music with her phone and threw a pillow at her crush.

“Seriously bro,” Reggie sighed.

“Oh my god,” Alex groaned pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What?” Luke asked sheepishly. “So I’m guessing you’re not pregnant?”

Reggie nodded. “Nope, I’m just dead, so I’ll never have them again.”

“Ohhhhh, that makes more sense,” Luke huffed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry Reg, my mouth gets away from me sometimes.”

“I know, it’s ok.” Reggie bounced off the couch and gave him a hug.

She felt Julie and Alex join the hug and grinned glad to have her whole family around her.

“I still have mine though,” Julie sighed as they let go of each other.

“At least your alive?” Reggie tried.

“I guess,” Julie sighed leaning her head on Reggie’s shoulder. 

“That’s the spirit!” Reggie grinned and everyone groaned at her pun, but it got Julie to smile again so Reggie counted it as a win. 

~

Later when Flynn came over to hang out and try to work on a history project, Julie told her about the day’s events, Flynn gave a happy squeal, congratulated Reggie like she won an Oscar, and made a comment about having one thing to look forward to in death. They had another dance party just the three of them and no history project work got done that day. Reggie focused to become solid and visible and twirled Flynn around the room a few times. Both of their cheeks burned, before Reggie’s concentration slipped and Flynn fell through her to the fluffy pink rug. Julie winced in sympathy and helped Flynn to her feet.

“Tell her I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” Reggie said frantically hovering by the girl she had a crush on since the moment she met her. She focused and adjusted Flynn’s red hat so it sat at the perfect cutest angle on her head. Flynn smiled and looked up at the moving hat. 

Julie smiled at her reassuringly and passed the message on. Flynn blushed and shrugged the fall off, assuring Reggie it was fine. Reggie took a half step to the left so their eyes almost met. 

Julie looked between the two smitten girls and sighed, “tell me that’s not what I look like when I’m with Luke.”

“Julie!” Reggie and Flynn gasped at the same time. Julie giggled as they both threw pillows at her and the rest of the night dissolved into a pillow fight before Flynn had to go home for family dinner. 

~

Before they went to “sleep” that night, they couldn’t actually sleep but they took the night time hours to decompress from the day and just relax together in the studio, Reggie decided to get a few answers.

“Hey, Alex?” Reggie asked from the couch, absently playing with a cat’s cradle string, she almost had Jacob’s Ladder, but the last few moves always tripped her up. 

“Hmm?” Alex replied from the armchair, not looking up from his book, The Library Book by Susan Orlean, that Julie lent him. 

“What does Mood mean, in like modern slang. Julie used it earlier and was too tired to explain.”

“Oh yeah, Willie told me this one. It’s like if someone says something and you relate to it, you say mood. It’s like saying same.”

“Ok, that makes sense,” Reggie said, fumbling the last step, forming a knot instead of Jacob’s Ladder. She sighed as she worked to untangle the string.

“What did you say that made Julie say that?” Luke questioned from the loft where he was playing a Mario game on Carlos’s old 3D DS.

“Oh, just that my period cramps were worse than the pain I felt when I died, and the pain from Caleb’s curse jolts,” she said without looking up from her string, she grinned as the loops pulled together to form a perfect Jacob’s ladder. “Hey! I got it!” 

“Reg-” Luke started staring at her horrified.

“Girl how-” Alex shook his head.

“What?” she asked finally looking up at them. “You guys know how bad they got, and you helped me get through them, since the very first one,” she said, thankful for her real family being there for her. “This is not news guys.”

“Yeah, but, worse than when we died?” Luke asked leaning his head on the railing and giving her the sad puppy dog eyes.

Reggie nodded, “Yeah, it sucked but it was just something I had to deal with. I’m just really glad you guys were there for me, and-” she cut herself off before she said Bobby’s name or Dawn or Maggie’s, her girl friends, from life who understood more than her boys did sometimes. She missed them. 

Alex reached over to grab her hand. “I’m really glad you don’t have to go through that anymore.”

“Me too,” Reggie smiled and squeezed his hand. She looked up at Luke who’s face was scrunched up in his thinking about Julie expression. She smiled knowing Julie would wake up tomorrow and if she was in pain or needed anything Luke would be there for her. They all would be but Luke was going to make it his mission in the afterlife to always be there for her no matter what.

“Ok, so I need another definition.” She turned her attention back to Alex.

“Shoot.” he smiled.

“What does Netflix and Chill mean?” Alex’s face dropped and he went pale. 

“Alex?” Reggie asked, sitting up and looking at him with concern. 

“Uh, well, um I mean-”

“Dude, it can’t be that bad,” Luke interrupted.

Alex waved his hand at Luke and took a deep breath. “Ok, it means you watch a movie or tv show on Netflix with someone but you don’t really watch it, you- make out, and other stuff, if you want to,” Alex said, his face as red as Reggie’s Bass. 

Reggie fell over onto the couch and groaned into the cushion. “No wonder Julie couldn’t stop laughing…” Alex had the decency not to laugh at her, just patted her back sympathetically. Luke on the other hand- laughed so hard he fell out of the loft. Unfortunately, ghosts can’t really break bones, it apparently still hurt like hell though as luke cursed up a storm as he rolled on the ground in pain. Reggie tried to hide her giggles, Alex had no such qualms and laughed openly, pointing at him and falling off the chair.

“You so deserve that for laughing at me man,” Reggie giggled.

“Oh hush you,” he groaned levering himself up off the floor with a groan.

“So how exactly did Netflix and Chill come up in conversation between you and Willie?” Reggie teased.

Alex blushed and looked back down at his book. “I do not want to have this conversation right now guys.”

Luke plopped down next to Reggie, slinging his arm around her shoulders.

“Ok,” Reggie agreed easily, she never liked forcing people to talk when they didn’t want to. She hated it when people, namely her parents, did it to her.

“Yeah man, it’s cool.” Luke smiled. “But if you ever do want to talk, about Willie about anything, we’re here for you,” Luke said. Alex nodded, his smile small but soft. Reggie sighed and curled her legs up under her and leaned into Luke’s shoulder. She closed her eyes and the studio fell back into a comfortable silence again. 

They couldn’t sleep but it was nice to just be with her boys in peace like this.

**Author's Note:**

> My own periods are pretty mild most of the time, but I have friends and family who just have the worst period experiences. I'm lucky enough to have a mom who explained everything very clearly when I was a kid so my first period was expected and normal, for me it wasn't a big deal. But recently I've heard some horror stories of girls who had no clue what was happening and just the fear and embarrassment they had to deal with, just, it struck a chord with me. Also, I watched a youtube video of women reacting to stranger's period secrets. And I just- I cried, the stuff they talked about, some of it I knew or experienced in some way, but others surprised me. And it just made me thankful for my family and for our relative financial security. You guys should watch it, it makes you think. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3E9xZrAdP0 
> 
> Soooo?? What did you think? Let me know in a comment and don’t forget to leave a Kudos!
> 
> K9KID OUT!
> 
> TTFN!


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